WEATHERFORD, Okla. – It was a tough test for the Northwestern Oklahoma State University women's basketball team Thursday night as they were tasked with a road trip to face national ranked Southwestern Oklahoma State in Weatherford.
Despite a slow start, the Lady Rangers held strong much of the contest before the Lady Bulldogs were able to put away in the final minutes on their way to an 83-58 win. SWOSU entered the game ranked No. 8 in the country in the D2SIDA poll and No. 13 in the WBCA Coaches poll.
The loss for the Lady Rangers snapped their four-game road win streak as they moved to 9-15 overall this season and 6-11 in Great American Conference action. Northwestern will be back in action Saturday afternoon when the Lady Rangers host Southeastern Oklahoma State at 1 p.m. inside Percefull Fieldhouse.
Redshirt Junior Kalea King had an incredibly efficient game on the floor. King finished the game 7-of-8 shooting with 16 points to lead the Lady Rangers. Bailey Brown, who gave Northwestern its only lead of the game early in the first quarter, finished with 12 points and nine rebounds.
As a team, the Lady Rangers outrebounded the Lady Bulldogs 43-33.
Midway through the first quarter, the Lady Bulldogs were able to open up a 15-point advantage before Jakeria Otey was able to knock down a pull-up jumper from the right elbow and King got to the rim for a layup to stop the bleeding.
With 1:02 to go in the opening period, Otey drained a shot from beyond the arc to cut bring the difference to single digits at 25-16. Southwestern added a pair of free-throws on their end of the floor only to be answered by Presley Payahsape with a jumper as time ran out on the quarter for two of her seven points in the game.
The Lady Rangers cut he difference to the fewest points of the game with 8:30 to go in the second quarter with a three off the fingers of Bailey Forell bring the score to within two possessions at five. Unfortunately, the Lady Bulldogs answered with a three-point basket to kickoff a 12-0 over the next three minutes.
The story remained the same through much of the third quarter with Southwestern answering any push the Lady Rangers were able to put together. As the game wound down in the fourth and foul trouble began to really creep in on the Lady Rangers, the home team was just two much as the pulled away for the final 83-58 outcome.
Northwestern turnovers proved to the costly with Southwestern putting up 25 points off 29 Lady Ranger turnovers.
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